Krem's Dance
by TurtleTape
Summary: Krem is no stranger to dances, but meeting a beautiful girl who willingly runs off to a secluded balcony is entirely new territory. Likely the start of a series. Rated T for now, possible change in the future.


Krem pulled her close. The girl had long hair, waterfalls cascading past her shoulders and breasts. Perhaps he was a soldier, but he had not yet given up romantic dreams of ballrooms, and here in the bright lights and the clear glass ceiling that revealed twinkling stars he was living at least one of his dreams.

Her hair was blonde. Pale and straight as straw, barely tamed with a length of twine. Nona wasn't pristine and carefully manicured like so many of the girls at the dance. In fact, some of her hairs were wisps, wandering away from her head with the faintest breath. Her cheeks were dotted with deep brown freckles that gave away her farmer's lifestyle while adding to her beauty.

"And so I gave him a carrot," Krem said, grinning in the middle of the dance, "and the dog ran off as though a carrot was the best thing in the world."

When Nona laughed, Krem's chest swelled. At that moment, it didn't matter that his lowered voice wasn't yet perfected. Or that his chest was bound tightly beneath his tunic. Or that an awkward package was shoved into his trousers to hopefully mimic his other male counterparts. All that mattered was that a beautiful brown-eyed girl was laughing at his story.

"_Come with me,_" Krem whispered, his lips dangerously close to her ear in the middle of a dance floor.

Nona giggled, the sound airy and light in Krem's ear. This was where he should have been all along. He never should have been the pursued girl. Instead, he should have been the pursuer. The man aching for the pretty girl in the corner and seducing her with sweet words and funny stories and promises of pleasure.

As he led her through the ball room, Krem was able to forget what he was. He was dressed in formalwear. He had been working out, and tight leggings and a fitted top showed off the growth of his thighs and shoulders. In the two years since his first reckless haircut he hadn't quite perfected the look, but it was a definite, strong start. Most people now knew him as Krem, or as Cremisius, not as the name his parents had given him when he'd come into the world screaming and bloody.

It was freeing, knowing that most either had no idea about his past or didn't care. Dances weren't nearly as tortuous when he was able to play the appropriate role.

They were soon on a balcony, one hidden away on the third or fourth floor of one of the few manors of the area. It was difficult to keep track of staircases when a beautiful woman was on his arm and all but nibbling his ear.

A gentle breeze flitted through, making Nona's hair flutter slightly and cooling Krem's cheeks. Nona's were flushed, and Krem had the idea that the color wasn't entirely due to the climb to this floor. She was a fit girl, with a hard core and firm shoulders, from what he had felt during dancing, so a few stairs wouldn't likely have made a difference.

"It is a beautiful night," Nona commented, stepping forward and placing gloved hands on the railing of the balcony.

"Not nearly as beautiful as you," Krem said without thinking.

Nona blushed again and averted her eyes, while Krem stepped forward and took his place at the railing next to her.

"Do you think I'm lying?"

"No, I...I just rarely hear it. And I've never heard of...forgive me," Nona's eyes dropped further, somehow, and she pushed away from the railing. Her slender fingers slipped together in front of her as she walked. "I have never heard of a Cremisius Aclassi."

It didn't simply feel as though Krem's heart skipped a beat. Rather, it felt as though his entire chest stopped functioning, and not in a good way. For a moment, he was simply certain he had been found out. What did it matter that he viewed and knew himself as a man when he had the wrong body? But his worries were unfounded.

"I only wish I had heard of you before. I will never understand why your family hid such a man," Nona said. Her hands, twined together, pulled apart slightly to begin pulling gloves away.

He hadn't expected that response, and for a moment he was speechless. Was his luck truly that good? His eyes watched as Nona revealed each slender finger. "I...I suppose you could say it's complicated," he managed.

"Well," Nona said, as she laid her gloves on the railing. Then, she lowered her voice as her large brown eyes shifted up to meet Krem's gaze. "_I_ suppose I can admit I do not quite care." And then her hands were on his cheeks, pulling him down into a kiss, and Krem's arms were wrapping around her waist like it was the most natural thing in the world.

She tasted light of sweet champagne, but strawberries and chocolate won out. Decadence, forbidden fruit. Her body felt good against his, the thin frame resting so naturally against his muscled one, and when her hands shifted so that her arms could rest along his shoulders Krem's knees went weak.

Such soft lips, unaffected by cold winter winds or harsh summer sun, just supple and moist. His own parted against those plump lips and she responded in kind, and when their tongues touched Krem lost all sense of time. A hand was in his hair and a body leaned longingly against his own, and then it was over. The music died and Nona pulled away, a blush still prettily red on her cheeks.

Krem parted his lips to speak, but before he had the chance to, she spoke.

"I would like to see you again, hidden Aclassi son," she said as she picked up her gloves. "In three days, at the lake, under the willow tree. I will be there just before sundown, if you will."

Words stuck in Krem's throat, though he managed to nod, and then Nona was leaving. Her dress swept the floor gracefully around and behind her, and her hair created a short cape from the wind she created. He all but fell back against the railing in shock at how the evening had turned, and only then realized Nona had only taken on glove with her, leaving the other for him.

One side of his mouth curved upward as he took the glove, then stood upright. Three days.


End file.
